Trends – Page 42

January 19, 2013December 23, 2016

What are your Sales Channels?

It is common to be talking to people about business and hear them say they are not selling enough even though they are marketing all the time.

It inspired me to write this post because I see simple mistakes that entrepreneurs make when selling that impacts a lot how much money they could be bringing in.

1. Marketing and selling are not the same thing. When you are posting on social media sites like Facebook and Linkedin several times a day you are marketing not selling. You need specific sales actions- actions that make people purchase something.

If you post something with link offering some value that would lead to a sale, then it is another story.

For example: You create a report on one topic where you have a specific call to action for them to acquire a service and you offer this free report to your list – will generate sales.

When you have some specific sales actions, they need to be reliable, you need to be sure they can generate sales. Branding yourself in social media sites is good for, well, branding, but it is not a reliable way to make sales.

So the key point here is to ask yourself every time if it is a reliable sales method, if it is something you can track conversion.

Maybe you are like me, I’m not into numbers. I’m a creator. Checking numbers and tracking how my sales efforts are converting is not something I used to enjoy. But it is crucial if I want to succeed.

Tradtional media is easier to track but it does not mean you cannot track sales efforts online. Even on webinars today you can do AB split testing sending participants to different sales letters. It may be a bit more work but it will open your eyes on what is working and what is not.

You need to know what your sales channels are. I see a lot of people that have no idea and again they think everything they do in marketing leads to sales.

Follow up, follow up, follow up. I talk to online and offline businesses everyday and am really impressed at the percentage that does not have a proper follow up strategy. Around 90% my friend. Some have some auto-responder messages in place which is good. The bad part is that they think this is all they should be doing when it comes to follow up. You can increase your conversion by 50% just by doing proper follow-up.

People that bought from you before are the ones that are more likely to purchase again from you. They already know you and trust you. Stop the madness of always going after new leads and create a process to generate specific offers to those that haven’t purchased anything from you in the last 6 months. Here we call the Wake the Zombies campaign.

Make a goal to sell something everyday. It doesn’t matter the price point. What matters is the habit. It is very easy to get lost in marketing, because it can be fun and gives you the sense of being busy than to make specific efforts on selling.

Make a goal to send some ships every day. At the end of the day here at BuzzBooster we ask each other: How many ships have you sent? This means, what have you done to generate sales today or tomorrow. The idea behind this is that in order to have fish on their tables, fishermen have to send the ships out to sea. No ships, no fish. Got it?

Here you find a chart of what I take as sales channels and that we use to get ideas on the ships we send.

Online sales	Offiline sales
optiin- report-sales	direct mail
opt-in video sale	eddm
ppc	networking
facebook ads	speaking gigs
FB promoted posts	workshops and presentations
banner to sales	cold call
webinars- teleseminars	cold calls
e-mail marketing	referral program with existing clents
Private hangouts	campaign for inactive customers
affiliates	postcards to neighborhood
jvs	Newspaper ads
clickbank	magazine ads
launches	radio ads
Amazon- kindle, products and audio	live events
telesumits
PPC on specific sites like Plenty of fish
newsletter ads
Blog

Do you have any others?

January 15, 2013December 23, 2016

What Willy Wonka can teach you about marketing.

As entrepreneurs we need to be like Willy Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstopper: familiar but always changing.
In other words always innovative but don’t change the whole business every time.

January 14, 2013

Just a cool quote

Only two things change your life: either something new comes into your life, or something new comes out of you.

January 11, 2013December 23, 2016

Success is not a one time meal, it is an ongoing feast- The process for success and the unstoppable you

The coaching and consulting business can be really fun, really exciting and really frustrating.
When clients follow the advice and take action, they see results and everyone grows. That is when it is fun and exciting.
But, there are those that follow some advice, see some results, get a taste of what success is and go back to what they were doing before. That is when it is frustrating.

Unfortunately that is the nature of the business, some people will move forward and some won’t.

Even though I understand this dynamic, I still get frustrated when I see a business full of potential not go anywhere. Usually this type of entrepreneurs goes after every new magic tool, every new social media tool and jumps from coach to coach.

I work a lot but every night I take some time to watch documentaries and some TV shows. I love Shark Tank and Kitchen Nightmares. I usually watch Kitchen Nightmares with my daughter because we love to bitch about those restaurant owners that don’t do what they are told, go into business without knowing anything about the restaurant business and are so ego centric. That is fun for us. After each episode we check on our tablets if they are still open or not. We watched the whole UK series and several of the US ones so far. This amounts to about 45 episodes. From this group less than 5 restaurants are still open. Think about that, it is less than 10%. You can blame Chef Ramsey but that is the same percentage you get for super performers in a sales force and the same for most consultants.

Something is clearly wrong. You can blame the coach or consultant, you can blame, in our case, marketing or social media but if you go and watch those episodes you will notice that fear, lack of vision and bad habits are really the culprit.

This made us re-think our own approach. We traditionally focus on very strong positioning, message and then marketing but as I mentioned above, even if you do some things right, experiment success it does not mean you will keep on the right track and keep being successful.

In order for you to become an unstoppable entrepreneur there are a few more things you need to work on and these is the process we have incorporated:

1. You need to develop a kaleidoscope vision.
On a daily basis, we see things in pieces, we have to-do lists, we forget to think big (or we don’t even know what that is)and very seldom we acknowledge any limitations. We need to combine these elements in order to create the right picture of our future in business.

2. Find your broken windows. We talked about this concept before. You need to access and identify what is not working, habit patterns and how you can incorporate new business habits.

3. Who is really in charge? When you put things together you find out that you really live with 2 different personalities. Crazy huh? But true. There is the you that is rational, wants to succeed, knows there is more out there for you and this other person who just leaves in fear and disbelief. You need to take a specific set of actions and decide who is in charge.

4. Show your real side. Here is where you craft the story you tell your audience and create points of similarity. Here is where you develop you full potential and then,

5. You just worry to always increase the level of trust with your audience- clients.

Remember that for this process, you do need a pair of fresh eyes that are not emotionally involved with you or your business. Being real is crucial.

Once you get this right, then you can worry about positioning, marketing, prospecting etc.because here you will get what you deserve and will keep getting. Success is not a one time meal, it is an ongoing feast.

January 8, 2013

E-mail marketing better than SEO and Social Media?

Very interesting info-graphic about the efficiency of e-mail marketing from Business2community.

If you feel overwhelmed by this fact, read on to learn about some great email subject lines that will guarantee your targeted audience opens your email.

1.) Subjects that Offer Contrary Advice

This particular subject line works really well if the audience happens to encompass members of the business community. Ultimately, the use of a contrarian title makes a reader begin to think about what you actually mean and they end up opening your email specifically to find out if they guessed what you were talking about.

Example: Your Clients Have No Idea What They Want: Effective Research Shows Correct Market Trends and Foregoes Collecting Customer Opinions

2.) A Creative Thought that Doesn’t Really Fit Together

In a sense, this could involve the use of sarcasm. When used correctly, this style of writing can be humorous, invoke curiosity and inspire action. But remember, if you use it in the subject line, the body of the text has to back it up.

Example: Accomplish All Your Dreams without Leaving Your House

3.) Say Something Controversial

Ultimately, controversy will always be an effective marketing tool. This is why the National Enquirer and other celebrity tabloids will always fly off the shelves. A reader always wants to learn a secret or be privy to salacious information. As an email marketer, you can use this desire to sell your product or service.

Example: What Facebook Doesn’t Want You to Know About Paid Ads

4.) Shock and Awe

Shock will always be one of the most intense emotions a human can experience, for better or worse. Shocking information sells and, just like the breaking news ticker that scrolls along the bottom of the TV screen, this type of subject line should be timely. After all, how many times have you paused what you are doing specifically to check out what a shocking headline was about, either on TV or the Internet? The same can be said about email.

Example: Warren Buffett Explains Why Your Business Is Going to Get Crushed in 2013

5.) Reference the World of Pop Culture

As much as many of us may hate to admit it, there is a reason why people like the Kardashians and Lindsay Lohan attract our attention. While it may be a form of mediocre entertainment, most people have a hard time turning their attention away from pop culture references. This is because, for good or bad, pop culture icons satisfy our curiosity as well as allow us to feel good about our choices (because of their bad ones). A pop culture reference in an email subject line can be pure gold.

Example: What Not to Do: Kim Kardashian’s Guide to Bad Business

In closing, there are some rules to follow when writing email subject lines.

Make it useful; promise valuable information to the reader.
Ensure that there is a sense of urgency; it must inspire the reader to open the email right now.
Create a unique message; ensure the email is something that is compelling and creative.
Provide specifics; always make sure that the message shows how the reader will benefit from the information.

Remember, your targeted audience is not simply standing by, waiting to hear from you. When you do happen to have an email in their in-box, you have to give them a reason to open your message and read what you have to say.

January 7, 2013

One of those chances

If lately you bought any of the business magazines out there like Entrepreneur, Inc etc. you saw that one of the biggest trends for 2013 is social media marketing.

It is not very difficult to imagine the reason why social media is still the talk of the town.

Business owners are finally paying attention to it and seeing opportunities to market their business. When it comes to marketing in a soft market with a lot more competition and many times with a smaller budget, social media marketing can come very handy. It is not free like many people like to claim. To be done well, it does cost some money, time and effort. Did I say it also needs some thinking?

Anyone can start Facebook pages, Twitter accounts etc, but to make them work and bring back prospects, sales, awareness, branding, it takes a bit more.

I still talk to business owners who believe they don’t need to do anything online or even worse, they don’t need to do any marketing, they say all their business comes from referrals. My hair goes up every time I hear this. They don’t notice because I use my hair up anyway, just in case it is a day I meet one of those business owners.

The truth is social media is the best venue for more referrals if you know what you are doing. Not to mention that buyers use search engines all the time and if you don’t use social media, you don’t show well on search engines anymore. Not only that, try a search on Google and you will see how many results are coming from social media sites like Pinterest and Google Plus.

It is a brave new world out there and it is for the brave. I hope you are one of them.

We know that doing social media right, consistently and constantly requires time and time is your most precious asset. Maybe the best route for your business is to outsource your social media marketing campaign.
Your mission then is to outsource. But if you choose to accept this mission beware that hiring someone with little experience, no marketing or business knowledge will only lead to frustration.

You don’t need to be frustrated, do you?

I have an offer for you. Yes, I know you knew this was coming. We did this offer 6 months ago and a lot of people took advantage of it and are now 6 months ahead of you when it comes to marketing with social media.

Waiting has a high cost in business.

This is an offer we normally ask $2,500.00 a month. For the next 48 hours, it will be only $947 a month, for 4 months.

It includes: Your social media campaign:

– Keywords research: You’ll get a list of keywords you should be targeting to get qualified clients. We’ll use those keywords during the campaign as well.

– Twitter: We’ll customize your twitter account background (with a call-to-action), and gather a nice amount of targeted followers for you (at least 1,000 new targeted followers), Send out 6 daily Twitter messages (we’ll even create the messages for you).

– Facebook: Customize your business page, add a lead-capture page (so you can get more leads directly from inside Facebook), post messages to your page on a daily basis.

– LinkedIn: Daily messages on LinkedIn.

– Video SEO: Create 4 monthly videos targeting specific keywords so you can rank for those keywords on Google. 60% of people click on videos inside the search engines. They might as well click on your videos! (we’ll create the videos and the content for them so you won’t have to worry about that)

Bonus: We’ll include a Google Plus business page and post daily messages there too!

All you need to do is call in the next 48 hours 801-842-9765 or e-mail buzz@buzzbooster.com

You can shop around and you will see that many companies ask the same amount to provide just one social network. You will get a smart presence on 5 and will be able to generate leads to your e-mail.

Now, branding, awareness, attention, loyalty, sales, leads await for you on social media environments!

Let’s get this going? 801-842-9765

There are only 5 spots available this time so hurry.

January 7, 2013

When do you use QR codes?

When presented with an image of a QR code, 94% of smartphone shoppers surveyed by Perception Research Services International (PRS) reported having seen one, while 44% claimed to have used one. Among those shoppers who reported having used QR codes, the predominant uses were for general product information (69%) and promotions (65%), with price (57%) also a motivator. Respondents, who were required to be responsible for at least half of their household’s grocery shopping, were generally less likely to use QR codes to obtain product reviews (42%), loyalty rewards (40%), or to find a store’s location (29%).

The study also finds that men are more likely than women to be both familiar with, and users of, QR codes, a result that aligns with research from Scanbuy showing that QR code users skew male.

Overall, unaided awareness of QR codes among PRS survey respondents stood at 57% (men: 75% / women: 52%).

Qr codes have many more uses, you can read more on older posts of this blog. Use creativity to market with qr codes.

January 5, 2013December 23, 2016

Marketing to boomers- Tablet users

Smartphone penetration is high among younger consumers and drops significantly among their older counterparts, but that pattern is less pronounced when it comes to tablet adoption, at least in a selection of developed markets. That’s according to survey results [download page] from Deloitte released in December 2012. The study, which looked at smart device ownership across 8 developed markets, found 18-24-year-olds to be almost three times as likely as the 55+ group to own a smartphone (58% vs. 21%), but less than twice as likely to own a tablet (19% vs. 11%).

The Deloitte report, “The state of the global mobile consumer,” suggests that the success of tablets in developed markets is in part a result of their adoption by age groups not traditionally seen as early adopters – such as older consumers.